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Reviews
Char Miller, Gifford Pinchot and the Making of
Modern Environmentalism. Island Press, Washington,
DC, 2001. Price £21.95. ISBN 1-55963-822-2.
Review by Cedric Milner
This is a scholarly, historical biography of Gifford
Pinchot, the first Director of the United States Forest
Service, a man who made his mark in the development
of both Forestry and Conservation policy in the United
States at the end of the nineteenth century.
The romantic conservation ethic of Emerson and
Henry David Thoreau in the Eastern US and John Muir
in the West implied that nature has other uses than
human economic gain with perhaps even a quasi
religious function. Gifford Pinchot coming along in the
latter part of the century introduced the anthropocen-
tric resource conservation ethic, possibly (although not
mentioned in this account) derived in part from the
ideas of John Stuart Mill. This is examined at length in
the book and, although ‘multiple use’ does not occur in
the index, its implications are widespread throughout.
Pinchot’s approach, despite his extremely privileged
background, emphasized equity such that he was
described as ‘a multimillionaire with socialistic ideas’
and reviled as a ‘communistic conservationist who
would sovietise the state’. Some of this could have been
the result of his espousing the feminist cause; the Prohi-
bitionist cause or even more certainly his strong support
for the labour movement, which Miller, however, sus-
pects, had more to do with votes than conviction.
However interesting these aspects are, since the book’s
subtitle encourages a hope of insight into the environ-
mental aspects of Pinchot’s life, it is on this it must be
judged.
From his early manhood Pinchot was determined to
become the Director of the Forestry Division of the
Agriculture Department in a country that had few
foresters but an oversupply of lumbermen. His wealthy,
influential, parents who entertained the great and the
good on his behalf assisted him in this. His early days
visiting Ecole Nationale Forestiere, Nancy, and Dietrich
Brandis, the great German forester responsible in large
part for the forest management of British India, are well
described, as is the latter part of his career. The famous
battles between the two giants of conservation in the
US, Pinchot and John Muir, are shown to be largely
myth, although certainly there were disagreements
© Institute of Chartered Foresters, 2002
made more obvious by their earlier friendship. Since my
admiration for Muir is diluted by his obvious racism I
suppose I am suspect if I say Pinchot unexpectedly
comes out of their disagreements as winner!
The central sections of the book, although fascinat-
ing reading as history, concerning his political excur-
sions after he had been sacked by President Taft, is less
useful as a contribution to the evolution of forest and
conservation policy in the United States.
The last third of the book is particularly interesting,
showing Pinchot in an important international role.
One of his objectives was world peace, which he con-
cluded was best promoted by a greater understanding
of the principles of conservation. At the Eighth Ameri-
can Scientific Conference in 1940 he argued that
‘Civilised life was not possible without natural
resources, the most basic of which was land’. The
‘demand for new territories made by one nation against
another’ he declared ‘is a demand for additional natural
resources’. The quest for economic dominance and
imperial control he suggested had been and remained
‘among the greatest causes of war’. He also argued pas-
sionately for fair access to these resources and, with
considerable foresight, the monitoring of the status of
‘wildlife and not only game’
To this end, in the aftermath of World War II he per-
suaded President Truman and Trygvie Lie, the UN Sec-
retary General, to convene the ‘United Nations
Scientific Conference on the Conservation and Utilisa-
tion of Resources’. This happened in 1949 but Pinchot
would have been deeply disappointed that it had been
bereft of much of its visionary quality and idealism. His
dynamic and supportive wife speaking at the meeting
slated the UN for sidestepping the human and political
aspects of conservation substituting materials, matter
and technical processes for the real issues. The con-
ference was ‘less a dream come to fruition than a noble
opportunity sidestepped’.
The book is stimulating, well written and provided
this reader with an insight into both a fascinating period
of American history and a fascinating man who indeed
did play a major role in the making of modern environ-
mentalism. However, I am personally sorry that it had
not more biological insight because there is obviously
still much to be reported of his ecological philosophy
which, although of less historical value, would be most
useful to those of us agonizing over the future of
resource management in a materialistic age.
Forestry, Vol. 76, No.3, 2003
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368 F O R E S T RY
S. Franzel and S.J. Scherr (eds), Trees on the Farm:
Assessing the Adoption Potential of Agroforestry
Practices in Africa. CAB International, Wallingford,
Oxon, UK, 2002. Pp. x + 197. Price £35 (hardback).
ISBN 0-85199-5616
Review by Rob Brook
Trees on the Farm: Assessing the Adoption Potential of
Agroforestry Practices in Africa is a very timely volume,
although one could quibble slightly with the geograph-
ical qualifier in the title, in that the book describes work
conducted mostly in Kenya and one location in Zambia.
Following two introductory chapters, the book’s core
describes five case studies of research led by the Inter-
national Centre for Research in Agroforestry, Nairobi,
Kenya (which now calls itself the World Agroforestry
Centre), working with other international collaborators
and local research and extension organizations.
These case studies set out to assess the adoption
potential of a range of agroforestry practices: hedgerow
intercropping and improved tree fallows for improving
soil fertility, boundary planting with upperstorey trees
for poles and timber, and shrubs for provision of fodder.
These represent a broad cross-section of agroforestry
interventions currently being promoted in tropical sub-
humid climates, and the researchers were careful to
incorporate as much diversity into their selection of case
studies as possible. All five set out to examine the feasi-
bility, profitability and acceptability of the practices
using both researcher-designed, farmer-managed
experiments and farmer-designed trials, where farmers
were able to test practices as they wished. The latter is
often an acid test of the likely adoptability of new tech-
nologies and is generally considered to be a more
reliable guide than recording farmers’ opinions about
particular options being offered, even when experi-
enced at first hand. An even more severe test is to see
whether non-participating farmers nearby begin to
spontaneously adopt and adapt new practices on their
own land. The researchers were careful to record
instances of these, but did not shirk away from report-
ing disinterest, either. A frequent criticism of agro-
forestry research is that too little has been learned from
the latter.
Four of the case studies were concerned with maize-
based farming systems, whilst the fodder provision case
study was based in a dairy farming area. If spontaneous
adoption by ‘non-participants’ is accepted as a critical
indicator of adoptability, then the winners were
improved fallows in eastern Zambia (Sesbania sesban
and Tephrosia vogelii, expanding from 20 farmers in
1993 to over 10 000 in 2000) and western Kenya (Cro-
tolaria grahamiana, C. ochroleuca and Tephrosia
vogelii being grown by several thousand farmers) and
shrubs grown for fodder in central Kenya (Calliandra
calothyrsus adopted by 4000 smallholder dairy farmers
in 2000). Least interest was shown in hedgerow inter-
cropping with Leucaena leucocephala and Calliandra
calothyrsus, with only 20 per cent of farmers, who
participated in the trials, eventually increasing the area
planted to hedgerows. More interest was shown in
planting upperstorey tree species (Grevillea robusta and
Casuarina junghuhniana), although after 52 months,
only 14 per cent of neighbouring farmers had planted
their own trees, although lack of seed or seedlings was
cited as the primary reason for this.
Besides bio-physical changes (crop yields, soil fertil-
ity), most case studies were subjected to a financial
analysis if outputs and inputs could be measured within
the timescale of the experiment. In some cases the
modelling of partial budgets was fairly sophisticated.
Nevertheless, there appeared to be many other factors
influencing farmers decisions whether or not to adopt,
such as wealth (richer farmers were more likely to adopt
than poorer) and gender (in some instances, e.g. when
planting Calliandra shrubs for fodder, most adopters
were male-headed households). Economic analysis at a
farm level cannot reflect differing aspirations and
opportunity costs of members within the household,
factors which materially affect adoption. In contrast,
the inconsistent social characterization of participants
(not to mention non-participants) was the weakest
element of the research, yet this is often the most power-
ful explanatory variable when considering adoption of
novel technologies, especially those that involve some
degree of risk. However, this is not to say that the
researchers were not cognizant of such factors.
Interesting though the findings of the case studies are,
this reviewer considers that the most valuable contri-
bution of the book is the final two chapters which draw
lessons on policy and adoption potential from the
research. The authors demonstrate clearly the realiza-
tion that adaptive research is not an end in itself; rather
there must be a clear link with policy formulation. They
explain that this is probably more important for agro-
forestry practices than agriculture because the produc-
tion and distribution of planting material for trees is
more complicated than for crops as trees often require
nurseries and few countries have mechanisms for the
production and distribution of tree germplasm to small
farms. Additionally, agroforestry practices tend to be
complex because they involve mixing trees with crops
or livestock and several years are often required before
they generate returns (the latter scenario also being
familiar to foresters, of course). Thus, the authors
argue, agroforestry technologies may need to rely more
on supportive policies for their development and
diffusion than less complex land-use systems.
The main policy domains propounded relate to
researchers on technology design and implementation
of on-farm trials, development organizations concern-
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REVIEWS
ing establishment of networks for adaptive research and
extension, and to policy makers on mechanisms for pro-
motion of agroforestry. Following on from formulating
a suite of options, the authors emphasize the import-
ance of then informing the policy-making process,
saying that ‘. . . little attention has been given to the area
of communication between researchers and policy
makers. This is indeed surprising, given researchers’ fre-
quent difficulties in influencing policy’.
In summary, this book is timely because areas of the
world where the natural resource base is being rapidly
degraded, such as much of sub-Saharan Africa and
south Asia, sorely need regenerative interventions such
as agroforestry. This volume is an exposition of good
quality adaptive research set in a clear conceptual
framework; is recognition that research plus extension
alone is often inadequate, but that enabling policies
need to support such developments if they are to have
any durable impact.
R.L. Chazdon and T.C. Whitmore (eds), Foundations
of Tropical Forest Biology: Classic Papers with Com-
mentaries. University of Chicago Press, 2002. Pp. xviii
+ 862. Price £66.50 (hardback) ISBN 0-226-10224-6;
£24.50 (paperback) ISBN 0-226-10225-4.
Review by Morag McDonald
Foundations of Tropical Forest Biology was published
in association with the Association for Tropical Biology
and presents a timely collection of pioneering work in
the study of tropical rain forests (dry forests are not
included). Modelled on the ‘Foundations of Ecology’,
this book similarly consists of an anthology of papers
chosen by world experts in tropical biology as seminal
works in their field.
The papers are organized into sections on related
topics, each introduced with a discussion of their role in
triggering subsequent research. The first part highlights
the contributions of naturalists and explorers dating
back to the sixteenth century. It might have been inter-
esting to have reflected more on the colonial subordi-
nation and desire to exploit exotic environments that
powered most of the early forays to the tropical regions,
but nevertheless the choice of papers originating with
the narratives of von Humboldt and Bonpland cata-
loguing travels to the ‘Equinoctal Regions of the New
Continent’ from 1799–1804, through to Schimper’s
1903 account of epiphytes of tropical rain forests makes
for fascinating reading.
369
Part 2 considers the role of geography and climatic
fluctuation in the evolution of the distribution of
tropical biotas, leading into the discussion of ecological
and evolutionary perspectives on the extraordinary bio-
logical diversity of tropical regions, the largest section
of the book, which is easily justified given the divergent
range of hypotheses presented. This section concludes
that we still have no adequate explanation for the evol-
ution of species-rich tropical communities, leaving the
door open for future studies with the pragmatic objec-
tive of ‘understanding to conserve’.
Parts 4 and 5 are oriented towards species interac-
tions, the former on the role of interactions between
plants and their herbivores, pathogens, pollinators and
frugivores in shaping community structure, while the
latter section presents a more evolutionary perspective
on the development of coevolutionary and mutualistic
relationships.
Parts 6, 7 and 8 are of a more descriptive nature and
present several studies of patterns of species occurrence
and associations. Doubtless, some specialists will feel
that important works have been omitted from these sec-
tions, but those included do have a broad species and
geographical spread, and include reports that may not
be readily accessible.
Parts 9 and 10 are process oriented and consider
forest dynamics and regeneration and ecosystem pro-
cesses, respectively. Part 10 has only three papers
(including an excerpt from Nye and Greenland’s The
Soil Under Shifting Cultivation), which is probably the
only possible response to synthesizing the overwhelm-
ing wealth of information on the wide breadth of disci-
plines encompassing ecosystem processes.
Parts 11 and 12 conclude the selections by focusing
on human impact and extinctions in relation to the sus-
tainable use of forest resources.
This is an indispensable volume for those interested
in the roots of the discipline, or in any way concerned
with tropical biology. The papers are introduced in their
original format which obviously leads to considerable
inconsistencies in presentation and the quality of repro-
duction, and there is no general index. However, given
that this is an inexpensive volume, it represents
extremely good value and the broad spread of refer-
ences covering both time and geography give a very
clear account of the development of the subject, and
includes many works that are not easily accessible. The
comments and papers of the late Tim Whitmore are a
fitting tribute to his contribution to our understanding
of these diverse ecosystems.